Then on Thursday, Vladimir Putin and Barrack Obama are separately scheduled to be having dinner with French president Francois Hollande, a day before both are in attendance, along with Mr Poroshenko at a lunch to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the D-Day Normandy landings.
One way or another, this week could prove crucial, especially at a time when there is reason to be optimistic following suggestions of a slow tropp withdrawal by Russia at the Ukraine border.
Russia and the wider world
While investors and markets have remained wary of the unfolding crisis in the two countries, the tensions have yet to simmer over into Europe or even neighbouring emerging markets as many feared it would earlier in the year.
Abi Oladimeji, head of investment strategy at Thomas Miller Investment, acknowledges that beyond Russia the response from the financial market has been “relatively muted”, although he notes that investors should not get complacent, particularly as any escalation is likely to be felt most acutely in Europe.
“With global growth slowing in recent months, the last thing financial markets need is a significant negative shock coming from a trade war or military stand-off between the West and Russia,” he says.
“While such an outcome will have far reaching consequences in the developed economies, the bulk of the damage will be felt in Europe which receives some 40 per cent of its natural gas supply from Russia. The region’s nascent recovery could be nipped in the bud by a significant energy price shock.”
Mr Oladimeji cites the coming summer months as a period when financial markets will be vulnerable to “any negative shocks” because volatility will be “amplified”.
Elsewhere away from talk of the Ukraine, a much heralded deal with China brought more positive headlines for Mr Putin in May. After 10 years of negotiation an energy trade deal between the two countries was agreed.
According to Heartwood Investment Management, the agreement represents a $400bn deal to supply 38 billion cubic metres of natural gas annually to China through a new pipeline over 30 years, with supplies due to start in four to six years.
Heartwood Investment Management explains: “The deal makes absolute sense for both countries. Gazprom has been searching for a diversifier away from Europe for both macro and political reasons.
“For China, the issue has been a rising dependence on gas imports and therefore a deal with Russia would not only help fill any supply gaps, but also dilute its dependence on any one gas supplier. It also helps in the aim of decreasing reliance on environmentally ‘unfriendly’ coal.”
